1. Field
An air purifier for a refrigerator is disclosed herein.
2. Background
In general, a refrigerator refers to a home appliance in which food or other items may be stored in an internal storage space shielded by doors. To achieve this, the refrigerator is configured to accommodate stored food in an optimum state by cooling the internal storage space using cold air generated through heat exchange with a refrigerant which circulates in a freezing cycle.
The refrigerator may be classified into various forms based on an arrangement of storage spaces within the refrigerator, such as refrigerating chambers and freezing chambers. Further, the refrigerator may have various structures and devices provided therein to improve use convenience of a user.
In recent years, a refrigerator in which an air purifier that purifies indoor air is mounted has been developed. Korean Patent No. 10-0797154, which is hereby incorporated by reference, discloses an air purifier for a refrigerator, which is detachably mounted on an upper surface of a refrigerator such that air is suctioned from opposite sides thereof through rotation of a fan and is purified by a filter unit, and the purified air is then discharged to a front side thereof.
The refrigerator having such a structure according to the related art has the following problems.
First, the conventional air purifier which is mounted on a fixedly installed refrigerator may purify only air within a limited space so that air in a kitchen space in which the refrigerator is installed may not be sufficiently purified.
Second, the conventional air purifier uses a cross flow type fan for a compact structure. In this structure, there is a problem in that because a suctioned air volume and a discharged air volume are low, an air purifying effect is low.
Finally, filters that constitute the filter unit of the conventional air purifier include an antibacterial filter, a deodorization filter, and a dust collection filter. However, the above-described configuration corresponds to a structure of a general air purifier, which is not specialized for a kitchen environment, and thus, is not effective in purifying air in a kitchen.